1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of anthraquinone, fiber-reactive dyes.
2. Background
The present invention is directed to water-soluble, fiber-reactive anthraquinone dyes. The class of anthraquinone dyes is well known in the art. Anthraquinone dyes are generally considered to possess good dye properties. However, as a class they suffer from the disadvantage of high raw material cost. It is therefore important in the industrial dyeing and printing of substrates for a dye to provide superior dye properties, and superior processing characteristics at a competitive cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,971 represents an attempt to produce improved anthraquinone dyes having fiber reactive moieties useful in dyeing or printing substrates containing hydroxyl and/or amide groups. The dyes of this prior art reference may be represented by the following formula: ##STR1##
The novel dyes of this invention provide dyed or printed substrates with excellent fastness properties including chlorine, light and was fastness. In addition, the dyes of the invention are easily synthesized. Another advantage is that the dyes of the invention provide brilliant blue shades without metal complexing the dye; i.e. they are free of heavy metals.